American teenager kept her nerve as she toppled Iga Swiatek 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4 to reach her first career WTA 1000 final in Cincinnati
Over the past two years of her young career, Coco Gauff had stared downeight times across three different continents. It is the most the 19-year-old has faced any opponent and on paper it should be a tantalising match-up between the undisputed No 1 and the highest-ranked teenager in the world.
Instead, from Gauff’s perspective, it had been a disaster. Not only had Gauff lost all seven of their meetings and all 14 of their sets before this week, but she wasn’t even close. In their last six meetings, Gauff averaged just four games per match.But Gauff has made significant progress this summer and on Saturday afternoon, she produced the most significant victory of her career so far.
Still, Gauff had reason to be more hopeful on Saturday. Since losing to the former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in the first round of Wimbledon, Gauff has found her feet in the North American hard-court swing. She hired Brad Gilbert – the former coach of Andre Agassi, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick – alongside her new coach, Pere Riba, and they have helped Gauff to gain more confidence in her forehand by focusing on her footwork.
Despite trailing 3-5 in the opening set against and then facing two set points on her serve at 5-6, Gauff showed her toughness by imposing herself in the exchanges, her forehand holding up as she forced a tie-break. Having failed to take her chances, it was Swiatek who was visibly shaken, feeling the pressure and struggling to find her range as Gauff took her first ever set of the match-up.
Swiatek’s inevitable response came quickly as she took control of the baseline, returning spectacularly and quickly forcing a third set. But under immense pressure, Gauff refused to buckle. She served incredibly well as the pair reached 3-3, then her supreme defence forced Swiatek to strike closer and closer to the lines until she eventually began to miss.
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